Sony Mobile today announced a new affordable addition to its Xperia smartphone range, the Xperia E. The Xperia E is a compact and competitively priced smartphone that is engineered for simplicity. Available in black, white and pink, the Xperia E boasts outstanding HD Voice quality that makes phone calls clearer than ever before. It also features noise cancellation that filters out background noise so consumers can hold crystal clear conversations in any environment. The Xperia E has also been designed to let consumers stay on top of cost and power consumption. The data usage application monitors how much is being spent and the extended standby mode increases the standby time up to 4 times.

When the screen has been in sleep mode for a few minutes, WiFi and data traffic will be disabled and most applications will be inactive to save battery life. However, calling and messaging will continue to work as normal. Once you touch the screen to wake the device up from standby, all functions are back to normal.

It will also be available in a dual SIM version - Xperia Edual - so that consumers can easily switch between tariffs with just one touch to stay on the most cost effective plan.

The Xperia E comes equipped with superior sound quality with the in-built "WALKMAN" application that includes xLOUD audio technology, 3D surround sound and a manual equalizer. With access to millions of music tracks from the cloud based streaming service, Music Unlimited from Sony Entertainment Networ2, consumers can also easily view and share their content on TV, tablet and PC with DLNA wireless connectivity.

The Xperia E will launch on Android 4.1/Jelly Bean and is said to be available in both single and dual SIM versions from Q1 2013. According to Sony Germany, the E will retail for 159 Euro while the Edual will retail for 169 Euro only.